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Alaska has the highest accidental death rate in the nation. A five-year study of Alaskan death certificates revealed that accidents accounted for 19% of all deaths and were the most important cause of death. Alaskan natives sustained an accidental death rate over 31/2 times the national rate, while Alaskan non-native rates were only moderately elevated above US mortality. Groups at greatest increased risk of accidental death in Alaska were males, natives, and native children In particular. Principal causes of acci" dental death among non-natives were aircraft and motor vehicle accidents and brownings, while drownings and fires were the most frequent sources of native accident mortality. Lowest accident rates in Alaska occurred in the urban regions of the state, with higher rates in the rural areas, largely attributable to drownings and fires.

Seven anaplastic parotid carcinomas of apparent ductal origin interpreted as “malignant lymphoepithelial lesions” were detected among 19 neoplasms occurring in salivary glands during a 4-year period at the major hospital serving the native Alaskan (Eskimo, Indian, and Aleut) population, which is estimated at 55,350. Eskimos had been shown previously to have a higher than average incidence of neoplasms of the salivary glands. Thirteen similar cases in the literature were reviewed. Sixteen of the combined total of 20 patients resided in either the Alaskan or the Canadian Arctic; nine had metastases to lymph nodes when first treated. The patients’ ages ranged from 17 to 54 years, with an equal sex distribution. Of the 20 malignant lymphoepithelial lesions, all in the parotid gland, five resulted in death 9 months to 5 years after initial therapy. Two additional patients who died at 1 and 12 years may have had residual cancer.

(1967). Maze Performance and Personal, Social, and Economic Adjustment of Alaskan Natives. The Journal of Social Psychology: Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 37-45.

THE AGE INCIDENCE OF NEURAL-ARCH DEFECTS IN ALASKAN NATIVES, CONSIDERED FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ETIOLOGY T. Stewart; The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery

This paper describes an attempt to evaluate the mental health services offered to Alaskan Natives. The concern of the authors was not the outcome of treatment, but whether the delivery system was functioning efficiently. Restricting their study to a single problem—alcoholism—they describe how their method of evaluation was developed and applied to programs and agencies in Alaska.

Using chart-review procedures, the authors examined the management of patients with a recognized alcohol problem in 12 medical facilities and 20 alcoholism programs throughout Alaska. The evaluation, which covered a one-year period, focused on the service delivery system rather than on treatment outcome, and sought to determine if problems of alcohol abuse were being solved. The authors found that a treatment plan was developed, followed up, and evaluated for 8 per cent of the problem drinkers treated in medical facilities and for 16.7 per cent of those in alcohol programs.

Information from archival and census data shows that Alaskan natives, mainly Athapascans, started to move into Fairbanks over fifty years ago. During the Second World War, jobs available on construction projects attracted both Eskimos and Athapascans in family units. It appears from recent data that those now moving into the city are unmarried and younger than earlier migrants, that women outnumber men, and marriages between native and non-native Alaskans are becoming more common. Forty-four per cent of a sample of 1,029 persons lived in inter-racial households in 1972.

In accordance with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, Alaskan Natives have begun through their corporations to make selections from certain U.S. federal lands in return for their relinquishment of claims to aboriginal rights. Since the selections must be made quickly, one corporation has cooperated with a geophysical institute in the application of satellite imagery to the survey of available lands and resources. The results have been beneficial to the Native interest.

One hundred fifty-nine Alaskan natives were nasopharyngoscoped in an attempt to determine the incidence of excessive amounts of adenoid tissue in the nasopharynx. Significant amounts of lymphoid tissue are present in the young Alaskan natives and the incidence is about the same as that of the Caucasian. The amount and incidence of adenoid tissue drops rapidly after puberty. In the opinion of the author, the eustachian orifice of the Eskimo appeared to be more widely patent than that of the Caucasian. In children under age 10, the number of cases in which tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy is indicated is about the same as that of the Caucasian.

During 1960-69, 321 reported deaths among Alaskan natives (Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts) were attributed to cancer. This number is not significantly different from the cancer mortality of U.S. Caucasians during this period, but is significantly higher than that of U.S. Indians. The mortality of Alaskan natives from cancers of the nasopharynx, esophagus, kidneys, and salivary glands was significantly increased. Among Alaskan Caucasians, only nasopharyngeal cancer was in excess in both sexes. Deficits in mortality among Alaskan Caucasians for cancers of other sites may be attributable, at least in part, to selection factors associated with the migration of healthy workers into the State.

The naturally occurring concentrations of lead-210 and polonium-210 in certain biological samples from Alaska are unusually high. The concentration processes are similar to those observed for artificially produced radioactive fallout. Concentrations of these nuclides are greater in Alaskan natives than they are in other United States residents.

tularensis. Skin test surveys (Hopla, 1960; Philip et al, 1962) provided additional evidence suggesting frequent infection of Alaskan natives with F. tularensis. However, clinical tularemia has seldom been recognized in these areas, and a major attempt to identify natural foci of infection in central Alaska was unsuccessful (Hopla, 1960; Downs, 1960). Since an extensive reservoir of tularemia has yet to be identified, the possibility of infection by an unknown, but antigenically related, agent cannot be completely disregarded. The present study was undertaken in Montana where clinical tularemia has

Measurements of the cesium-137 content of northern Alaskan natives during the summer of 1964 indicated that the adults of the interior village of Anaktuvuk Pass had the highest average body burden: 1280 nanocuries of cesium-137. This is an increase of 200 percent over the average body burden found in the summer of 1962 and 100 percent over that found in the summer of 1963. The greatest burden found in a native in 1964 was 2.4 microcuries of cesium-137, but the highest burden of all, 3.0 microcuries, was measured in a non-native living mainly on caribou meat. Sodium-22 was found in samples of urine from Eskimos, and subsequently in the Eskimos themselves and in reindeer and caribou meat.

A study was made of the DDT and DDE content of the diet and body fat of native Alaskans who lived in isolated, primitive areas and had minimal contact with insecticides. No DDT or DDE was detected in any of the native Alaskan foods analyzed with the exception of two white owls, both of which contained low levels of DDE. Eskimos store considerably less DDT and DDE in their body fat than the general population in the United States. These low dietary levels and the resultant low levels in body fat are consistent with previously published data on the relationship between intake and storage of DDT.

To the Editor.— Diabetes mellitus is rare in Alaskan natives (Bering Sea coastal Eskimos, Arctic Ocean coastal Eskimos, Athabascan Indians, and Aleuts). Mouratoff and Scott's report (226:1345, 1973) suggests that the Eskimos' high glucose tolerance may be associated with physical exertion rather than a genetic origin. I would suggest that the data as presented are also consistent with a genetic origin. Routine inquiry to my patients concerning family history of diabetes also includes an assessment of racial background. Most of the diabetic Alaskan natives that I have encountered have European or Russian ancestors, and often the patient can identify these forebearers as also being diabetics! Like Mouratoff and Scott, I have seen very few Alaskan natives with diabetes; I have seen no full-blooded Alaskan natives with childhood-onset, insulin-dependent diabetes. If their conclusion were correct that physical activity and fitness are important factors in the prevention of clinical diabetes, the white